世界女性護林員日

山東 李全忠

巾幗不讓須眉，女性亦是野生動植物保護行動中的中堅力量。

題材體裁自然說明文323★★★★文章詞數難度建議用時7分鐘

Wildlife rangers (護林員) work tirelessly to protect wildlife from extinction. In their native countries,these brave people do everything they can to keep endangered animals like elephants and rhinos safe.

More often than not, wildlife rangers are men. In many countries, women are expected to work in the home (cooking, cleaning, fetching water, and providing for the family). Many women become wives and mothers at a young age, which means that they may not have enough time or freedom to take part. Plus, the hard and dangerous tasks of a wildlife ranger mean that the job is frequently seen as unsuitable for women. Ranger training can be a difficult and physically demanding process, which requires lots of skills that women are not traditionally trained in.

As a result, just 11% of wildlife rangers are women. However, these women make up many successful female anti-poaching(反偷獵) teams in many countries around the world,including at least 18 African countries.

On June 23rd every year, people will celebrate female wildlife rangers all over the world. There are many more women out there, just like Nyaradzo, Sithabile and Leitah,who are working hard to make a difference—to the animals, wild places, and to their communities too!

The founder of How Many Elephants, adventurer Holly Budge, teamed up with her colleague Margot Dempsey to create World Female Ranger Day. Holly got to know many female rangers during her campaigns to save African elephants from illegal poaching. As a result, she knows just how important it is to encourage more women to get involved.

She said, “We are looking forward to bringing together female rangers around the world to celebrate their incredible work, identify the challenges they face, and provide them with the support they need through our fund-raising and awareness efforts.”

So hopefully, World Female Ranger Day will help support these wonderful wildlife rangers, and inspire even more women across the world to get involved. Brilliant!

Reading Check

1. What does the second paragraph mainly talk about?

A. The ranger training process.

B. Women's work in the home.

C. The disadvantages of women's being rangers.

D. The skills that women need to become rangers.

2. Why does the author mention Sithabile in paragraph 4?

A. To call on more readers to care for her.

B. To say she is a great wildlife ranger.

C. To raise money for her communities.

D. To prove celebrating rangers is a must.

3. What contributed to Holly's encouraging more women to get involved?

A. She was good at communicating with wildlife rangers.

B. She teamed up with her colleagues to help wildlife rangers.

C. She knew many female rangers during her campaigns.

D. She wanted to get more attention from the world.

4. Which of the following words can best describe Holly?

A. Enthusiastic and calm. B. Courageous and cautious.

C. Ambitious and independent. D. Encouraging and warm-hearted.

Language Study

Ⅰ. Difficult sentence in the text

Ranger training can be a difficult and physically demanding process, which requires lots of skills that women are not traditionally trained in. 護林員培訓可能是一個困難且對體力要求很高的過程，這需要許多技能，而女性在傳統上并沒有接受過這些技能訓練。

【點石成金】本句是一個主從復合句，句中的which引導非限制性定語從句，修飾先行詞process。

Ⅱ. Text-centered chunks

protect...from 保護……免受……

as a result 結果

make up 組成；構成

all over the world 全世界

make a difference 有影響；起作用

team up with 與……組隊；與……協作

look forward to 盼望

provide...with 給……提供……